How Conrad Roy's Family And Friends Reacted To Michelle Carter's Conviction

Conrad Roy III's friends and family said they were happy with Michelle Carter's conviction Photo: Twitter

The family and friends of Conrad Roy III spoke out following Michelle Carter’s involuntary manslaughter conviction Friday. Carter had been on trial for Roy’s death after repeatedly encouraging him to take his own life.

“She knew exactly what she was doing and what she said,” Conrad’s mother, Lynn Roy, said during an episode of “48 Hours” Friday. “The fact that she would say to him, ‘Your family will get over you.’ How is that even — I will never get over him.”

During the trial, prosecutors showed more than 1000 text messages between Conrad and Carter in which Carter urged him to commit suicide. Roy was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning inside his truck after attaching a portable generator to the car in a Massachusetts parking lot in 2014. In some conversations before his death, Carter gave him ideas for how to commit suicide and then expressed frustration that he hadn’t done so yet.

“This has been a very tough time for our family,” Conrad’s father said in a statement Friday. “We’d like to process this verdict that we’re happy with.”

A close friend of Conrad’s also spoke out about the verdict. Mike Harkins, a friend of Carter’s from high school, said he was glad to see Carter be convicted.

“I think it was a good decision — the right decision,” Harkins told People Friday. “At the end of the day, she has to live with what happened for the rest of her life. I am happy she was found guilty, because you can’t do stuff like that and expect to get away with it.”

Prosecutors argued that Carter urged Conrad to commit suicide in order to cast herself as the “grieving girlfriend” to friends and family. They cited a conversation during Conrad’s last minutes in which he attempted to get out of his truck because he got scared. When he relayed his doubts and fears to Carter, she told him to get back in the truck.

“You’re ready and prepared,” Carter wrote to Conrad. “All you have to do is turn the generator on and you will be free and happy. No more pushing it off. No more waiting.”

It also emerged that Carter had pretended she didn’t know what was happening despite being on the phone with Conrad during his death.

“She did nothing,” the judge said at the hearing. “She did not call the police or Mr. Roy’s family. Finally, she did not issue a simple additional instruction [to Roy]: ‘Get out of the truck.’”

Carter was charged as a youthful offender, meaning that although she was a minor at the time of Conrad’s death, she was charged as an adult. Her sentencing was scheduled for August 3 and could land her in prison for up to 20 years. It remained unclear whether Carter would appeal the verdict.